Wing and a Prayer
by powderedlightning
Summary: This is my second pony airforce cross over, this one is much better than my last. some of the characters are reused in this story because this story is meant to replace my old story
1. Chapter 1

CH1. 1

**Tones**

"Today? how could it be today? my wife just got home from having our two newborn kids and now i had to leave?"

I was outraged, my name is tones, a normal pegasus just living his life, i had heard a rumor going around ponyville about some war that was going to happen, I didnt think much of it until today, when my buddy swift breeze told me that we declared war on some rebel group of ponies over seas, it is my duty to protect my land, i had to sign up for the airforce, but how to break this news to my wife? i just had to come out with it, swallowing hard, i told her

"shadow, I-I have some news..."

She stared up at me with a puzzled look in her eye

"What is it hon" she said to me

Again i swallowed hard, i didnt want to tell her, but i had to

"Shadow...a war has started over seas...im joining the equestrian airforce..."

As soon as those words left my mouth, her jaw dropped, and I could see tears begin to come out of her eyes and stain her midnight blue coat, and she told me with a hint of sadness in her voice

"Tones, why would you do that? you just had your son and daughter!"

"Im sorry babe" i told her "But if i dont go, then im not protecting my land, and im not protecting you"

I put my wing over her to give her some comfort, and she hugged me tight, crying into my chest

"Tones, you better not die out there, i wont have my last two children grow up without a father!"

She was worried for me, i hugged her tight, telling her it would be alright, after a few minutes of crying she settled down, that is, until she heard my oldest son, a white stallion with a slicked back black and blue mane, say...

"Mom, Dad, im signing up for the equestrian airforce too..."

Shadow began crying again

"No lightning! Not you too!"

I comforted her, and gave my son an angry look

"lightning! your too young to join the airforce!"

I said this in hopes he would listen, but he was a stallion already, 18 and married...

"Dad" he said "You cant stop me"

I knew he would say that, really, what could i do, i let him join

The next day, swift, lightning and me, went to the base for sign up with our spouses. As my turn came to sign up, shadow hugged me tight, looking into my eyes

"Tones, you better not get shot down!" her eyes start to tear up "I love you!"

She kisses my lips as if for the last time, breaking the kiss, i told her

"I wont die, I'll be alright, I promise"

I kissed her again for the last time and signed up, I was equestria's property now. As I entered the base I looked back at shadow, her black mane shining in the sun, and her dark blue coat looking like the night sky, bringing out her golden yellow eyes, and I couldnt help but shed a tear as I left her behind.


	2. Chapter 2

CH2 **Tones** 2

Today was the last day of training, what used to be 30 ponies trying to get into a squad, was now reduced to 5, it was me, my son, a light grey pegasus with a black and green two-tone mane named Blaze, my sand colored, red maned pegasus friend Swift, and an all over ice blue mare named Spectrum. Training was hard, after every day was done, my light blue coat and black, darkblue two-tone mane were drenched in sweat, I couldn't believe I made it this far, I especially couldn't belive my son made it this far, he was a lot stronger than I gave him credit for.

When training got started today, the sergeant approached us, and told us somthing about a flight lead, he said

"Alright fillies, you 5 ready to take to the skies with a new flight lead?"

"Yes sir!" we responded

"Alright then, Captain Barracks!" he called ou

Just then, a dark grey pegasus with a messy black mane came out of a hanger and approached us, this pony looked like he had been through hell and back, he studied us for a while and finally said

"This my flight team? looks like a bunch of whimpy fillies to me! Lets see what you got, get up in your jets and follow me"

He climbed in his own jet, an F-15, while we climbed into our F-5-E Tiger jets, we took off after him.

" Alright, let's see if you can keep up!" the captain said punching full throttle in his jet.

We hit full throttle in our jets as well, but our fighters were horribly under powered compared to the captains top of the line jet. We tried keeping up as he turned hard left and hard right, pitching violently up and down, doing rolls, loops, split- s turns, and other various manuvers. As I followed his actions, I could feel the high G's putting stress on my body, my G-Suit was the only thing keeping me from passing out.

"Dear Celestia" I said "That was horrible!"


	3. Chapter 3

Wing and a Prayer

Ch3

**Lightning**

I kept my cool as I maneuvered my jet to match the captain's F-15, but it isn't easy to keep up with somepony who is flying a jet far faster than yours, the tight turns and violent pitches took their toll on my body, I was worried more about dad though, I was young and my body could take this abuse, dad however, was 37. Well, I guess I shouldn't worry too much, after all, he did make it this far into training, and barracks seemed to be handling well, and he looked older that dad! Still…I couldn't shake this feeling that something bad was going to happen to him…

Training was over, and it was time to land, I went through landing checks and lined up with the runway, until I heard control tower radio in about 4 planes that needed checking out, we turned around and headed to where we were told to intercept, the planes had some weird markings I hadn't seen before. The captain radioed to them, telling them to land at our base, but they went complying, finally we got the clearance to engage, and the jets scattered.

I broke formation, immediately targeting a bandit on my 1o'clock,, I heard my missile lock siren wale as my prey came into my sights, I released an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile his way, and it zoomed up his tailpipe, detonating and turning his plane into an exploding fireball of hot shrapnel. My first kill.

"That's a kill for me!" I exclaimed

I was excited about my first kill,, but there was no time to celebrate, there was still three bogeys in the sky, I looked around and saw my wingman Blaze flying after a jet, he seemed to be struggling for a lock on, I decided to go in and help him, but spectrum took that opportunity, swooping in and taking out the enemy in a few maneuvers.

"Thanks for the help spectrum!" I heard blaze say

She was a tough mare, the only one who managed to make it on our squad, I respected her.

"Two down two to go, nice work spectrum" I complimented

I looked to my six and saw the captain being trailed by a bandit, he turned left and right but the enemy jet stayed on his tail, then, the captain pulled a maneuver that probably would have killed us rookies, he pitched up violently, decreasing his airspeed, putting him in a stall, his F-15 dropped, and the enemy zoomed past him, then he punched the throttle again and pitched back up out of the stall and putting him right behind the bandit, and with one missile, he ended it…

"that's three" said the captain

"wait weren't there four" I asked

That's when I heard it, my dad shouting over the radio..

"I'm being targeted! He's got me locked! GET HIS ASS OFF ME!"

I looked around and saw him, he dad a bogey trailing him, I turned hard in his direction, and prayed to Celestia I would make it. Punching full throttle I caught up to the enemy jet, but I made a mistake, a mistake that can prove to be fatal, I overshot the enemy, he took advantage of my flaw and switched to targeting me.

"SHIT" I called out "HE'S ON ME!"

I turned left and right, pitched up and down, doing all I could to keep the bandit form locking me up, I did split-s turns, loops, reverse split-s turns but nothing seemed to work, then I heard the most dreaded sound a pilot can hear, the sound of a missile warning siren, frantically I pumped out chaff and flares, hoping the missile would fall for them. It worked, the missile trailed off into the clouds following a flare, but the jet was still on me, and there was still a missile lock siren screaming in my headset, I prayed for help, and that's when I heard it, an explosion and a flash of light behind me, I looked back fearing the worst, but instead of seeing my planes backside on fire, I saw the bandit dropping out of the sky.

"who took him out" I wondered,

Then I saw an allied fighter fly overhead, it was dad, he managed to get on my attackers six and take him out, I let out a sigh of relief.

"thanks da" I said "I owe you that one"

Finally, all the jets were down, we landed at the base, I kissed the ground, never so happy to be out of the air, the fight had shaken us up, but we shook it off and got some rest.


	4. Chapter 4

Wing and a Prayer

Ch4

**Tones**

I maneuvered left and right, up and down, praying to celestia that I would shake the bandit off my tail, just then the lock warning siren stopped. I quickly checked my six and saw the bogey was no longer there, I relaxed a little until I heard a shout over the radio.

"SHIT, HE'S ON ME!"

It was Lightning, I hastily scanned the skies and spotted him, his jet was being targeted by the same fighter that was targeting me. I turned hard right and pitched down the maneuver putting high g's on my body, I was behind them now, but the jet was too far to get a good lock on, then I saw what I feared , the enemy shot a missile straight at my son, I could see him frantically pumping out chaff and shooting out flares, I couldn't bear to watch my son die, I took action, hitting full throttle and hitting the afterburners, propelling my jet strait at them, my adrenaline raced, I had to save my son. I heard the missile lock siren go off for a split second, and I shot the missile as soon as it did, it zoomed up his tail pipe and exploded as I streaked past, I couldn't see whether or not lightning had made it or not, I feared the worst, until I heard over the radio…

"Thanks dad, I owe you that one…"

I let out a sigh of relief, he had survived

Though the fight only lasted a few minutes, it seemed like hours before we cleared the skies, but we did it, and all of us came back alive. Not bad for a rookie squad's first fight…


	5. Chapter 5

Wing and a Prayer

Ch5

**Tones**

Its been a few days since we took out the unidentified fighters, turns out they were rebel jets from overseas, these jets were going to try an ambush on the equestrian air force in order to break our first line of defense, but our navy found the carrier they launched from, and took it out. It was quiet now, days passed and no more air raids were reported, still, despite this peacefulness, I was unable to sleep, I kept having strange dreams, and even stranger, they all seemed to be linked, I would have dreams of me in my flight suit, on the ground, bloody and battered, or dream that I would try an fly using my wings, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't. These dreams kept me up late, but tonight, I would force myself to sleep. We were flying overseas to an allied base real early in the morning, and I wasn't going to fall asleep at the controls.

I laid in my bed and closed my eyes, not opening them until morning, a few hours later I woke from another strange dream, this time, I dreamt of gunfire and blood, these dreams were beginning to scare me. I checked the clock, it read 1400 hours, 2'oclock…we were supposed to get up at 3…I laid my head back in my pillow and I heard a voice.

"You better not be going back to sleep rookie!"

It was captain Barracks; he was up earlier than I was.

"Wasn't planning to captain!" I said

I sat back up in my bed, still wondering about my dreams, I couldn't help but bring it up to the captain.

"Captain" I asked "do you know what it means to have strange dreams about warfare?"

He sat up in his bunk and responded to me in a surprisingly calm voice considering the stupidity of my question

"Tones" he said "ponies are always having strange dreams in their first years of service, it usually doesn't mean anything"

He seemed to be trying to provide a little comfort, it didn't work, I was thankful he tried.I waited quietly in my bunk, trying to come up with a good meaning for the dreams, but every conclusion I came to was horrible.

Finally, the time came to take off overseas, it was still dark outside, and Luna's moon still shone brightly overhead in the clear midnight blue skies…midnight blue…shadow's coat was midnight blue…I suddenly found myself missing her dearly, I longed to see her beautiful face, I thought back to the moment I last saw her, our final kiss goodbye…I fought to hold back tears as I thought of her, and continued to the hangers. The captain was taking us to some hangers that were different than our usual ones that housed our F-5-E's. The captain opened the hanger doors, and inside them were five brand new F/A-18's.

"Men" He said "say hello to your new rides"

I looked at the new jets, I had seen these in action before, they were far superior to our old ones in every way.

"Take care of these babies as if they were your own children" The captain said

We taxied to the runway and took off, I looked into the night sky, remembering shadow again, I still longed to see her, I had been in service for close to a year now, I said a silent prayer to Luna to keep us safe on our overseas flight.

A few hours passed and the allied base was finally in sight, I couldn't wait to get this bird on the ground, I hated flying at night, though radar systems allow you to detect enemy's without actually seeing them, it was unnerving to think they are in the dark waiting to pounce on their prey.

We landed safely at the allied base, I was glad to be out of the skies, I kept having this bad feeling every time I flew, and the feelings only got worse in the new F/A-18, I tried to put those feelings aside , telling myself it was just nerves,, but it wasn't working. As the days progressed the feelings got worse and the dreams hadn't gone away. I had another one last night, this one really got to me, the dream depicted me, walking alone in my flight suit, bloody, struggling, there were no surroundings, just darkness…the only visible object, was a fire, far in front of me, for some unexplainable reason, I felt the need to walk to it, as I limped my way towards it, I could see the darkness turning into white, and I could faintly make out some trees surrounding me, they look charred. The fire was just in front of me now, and still yet, I kept limping towards it, stepping into the blaze. Finally I woke, these dreams were getting to me, they were driving me insane; why were they happening? Why were they so vivid? Why do they all seem to be linked? I prayed to Luna every night to let me sleep, and to Celestia every day to give me the energy to stay awake.

Tonight, I couldn't sleep even if I wanted to, I was jolted awake by the sound of sirens and flashing red lights and the sounds of explosions…the base was under attack…


End file.
